--- name: watson-assistant-search-overview title: Adding search description: Put your subject matter expertise to work by adding search. Search gives your assistant access to corporate data collections that it can mine for answers. last-updated: 2025-01-10 --- > ## Documentation Index > The table of contents for this documentation set is at https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/watson-assistant?format=markdown > The index for all IBM Cloud docs is at: https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/llms.txt > Use these files to discover more information as needed. # Adding search {: #search-overview} Put your subject matter expertise to work by adding search. Search gives your assistant access to corporate data collections that it can mine for answers. {: shortdesc} Your assistant can route complex customer inquiries as a search query. It finds information that is relevant to the query from an external data source and returns it to the assistant. Add search to your assistant to prevent the assistant from having to say things like, `I'm sorry. I can't help you with that`. Instead, the assistant can query existing company documents or data to see whether any useful information can be found and shared with the customer. You have four options to add search to your assistant: - The search integration for IBM Watson® Discovery. For more information, see [Add the search integration for IBM Watson® Discovery](#search-overview-integration). - The search integration for Elasticsearch. For more information, see [Add the search integration for Elasticsearch](#elasticsearch-integration-overview). - The search integration for Milvus. For more information, see [Add the search integration for Milvus](#milvus-search-integration-overview). - The search integration for Custom service. For more information, see [Add the search integration for Custom service](#custom-service-integration-overview). - A search extension for Coveo, Google, or NeuralSeek. For more information, see [Add a search extension](#search-overview-extension). You can enhance the search integration by using the assistant capabilities such as [Search trigger](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/watson-assistant?topic=watson-assistant-search-integration-enhancement&format=markdown#search-add-trigger), [No matches](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/watson-assistant?topic=watson-assistant-handle-errors&format=markdown#no-action-matches) and [Conversational search](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/watson-assistant?topic=watson-assistant-conversational-search&format=markdown#conversational-search-setup). For more information about implementing the enhancements for search integration, see [Search integration enhancement](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/watson-assistant?topic=watson-assistant-search-integration-enhancement&format=markdown). ## Add the search integration for IBM Watson® Discovery {: #search-overview-integration} Plus and Enterprise plans of watsonx Assistant include a built-in search integration that you can use with your additional, separate instance of IBM Watson® Discovery. You can embed your existing help content by integrating your assistant with search that is provided by IBM Watson® Discovery. This gives your assistant access to your organization's data collections that it can mine for answers. Customer questions are used as search queries to find relevant answers for your users. For instructions on adding the built-in search integration, see [IBM Watson® Discovery search integration setup](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/watson-assistant?topic=watson-assistant-search-add&format=markdown). ## Add the search integration for Elasticsearch {: #elasticsearch-integration-overview} You can add the search integration for Elasticsearch if you have Plus or Enterprise plans of watsonx Assistant. Embedding your assistant with the search from Elasticsearch improves the data collection to provide accurate responses to customer queries. You can add Elasticsearch from the Environments page or the Integrations page. For instructions on adding search integration for Elasticsearch, see [Elasticsearch search integration setup](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/watson-assistant?topic=watson-assistant-search-elasticsearch-add&format=markdown). ## Add the search integration for Custom service {: #custom-service-integration-overview} You can add the search integration for Custom service if you have Plus or Enterprise plans of watsonx Assistant. With a Custom service integration, you can search for information using a search capability that you create. For instructions on adding search integration for Custom service, see [Custom search integration setup](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/watson-assistant?topic=watson-assistant-search-customsearch-add&format=markdown). ## Add the search integration for Milvus {: #milvus-search-integration-overview} You can add the search integration for Milvus if you have Plus or Enterprise plans of watsonx Assistant. Use Milvus, a high-performance and highly scalable vector database to handle large-scale datasets and for applications that require real-time search capabilities and numerous concurrent users. For more information, see [Milvus search integration setup](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/watson-assistant?topic=watson-assistant-search-milvus-add&format=markdown). ## Add a search extension {: #search-overview-extension} With a search extension, you can "bring your own search" and use content from your website, knowledge base, or content management system. For instructions on adding a search extension, see: - [Coveo search extension setup](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/watson-assistant?topic=watson-assistant-search-extension-coveo&format=markdown) - [Google custom search extension setup](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/watson-assistant?topic=watson-assistant-search-extension-google&format=markdown) - [NeuralSeek extension setup](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/watson-assistant?topic=watson-assistant-search-extension-neuralseek&format=markdown)